Homecooked Food
by riley-poole27
Summary: Riley's POV, after Book of Secrets movie. Riley must steal 80 million dollars, and hack a website after being kidnapped by Ian Howe.
1. Chapter 1

Riley rolled over in his bed and opened his eyes to the familiar sight of his tiny apartment covered in random electronics, dirty clothes and half-eaten chinese food containers from that cute little asian restaurant down the block.

Since the discovery of both the templar treasure and the cibola treasure, there wasnt much that was filling his schedule.

Ben and Abigail were going steady, and since the book selling had obviously been a tragic state of affairs then Riley was basically filling up his days surfing the net on his laptop,and lazing around like it was summer vacation. He got bored of it after a week, and constantly called Ben to ask about page 47, which Ben usually ended up hanging up on him exasperatedly.

"Ben!" Riley whined. "Why cant you just tell me whats on page 47? i'm your best friend." Ben refused to give him any details, no matter how much Riley begged him. "Fine, be that way!" he yelled into his cellphone at Ben, after another hangup and no news whatsoever.

Ben called back an hour later, inviting Riley to the mansion. As much as Riley wanted to hold a grudge against his fellow treasure hunter, he also wanted some of that wonderful homecooked food that Ben could cook with such ease.

Needless to say, it was Riley's pathetic attempts at cooking that urged Riley to quickly forgive Ben for his rudeness and take up the he showed up at Ben's house, he could smell the succulent smell of homemade lasagna, and his favourite dish, fried rice.

Opening the front door, Riley walked in to the front hallway, and hung up his jacket on the hook besde the door. The lights were on in the hallway and kitchen, but he couldn't hear either of his friends.

"Ben?...Abigail?" he called out, stepping into the kitchen. The house was completely deserted. Riley took his cellphone out of his back pocket, and pressed the speed dial for Ben's cell.

"Come on Ben... Pick up!" Riley spoke impatiently.

He knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Ben would never ditch him like this, then refuse to pick up his cell phone. Ben always picked up his cellphone, no matter how annoyed he was, no matter what hour it was.

"Ben! Where are you?" Riley called out desperately, knowing full-well there would no response.

He heard the wooden floorboards creak behind him, and he spun around to greet whoever it might be.

He was incredibly shocked to discover that it was Ian Howe. He was a bit older-looking, and gaunt then the last time Riley had seen him, but it was definetly the same Ian. Riley took a step back and closed his mouth tightly as Ian started to smile.

"Riley," Ian told him.

" It would be in your best interests if you came with me."


	2. Chapter 2

Ian stepped toward Riley menacingly, at the same time that Riley turned around and ran through the kitchen, heading toward the front door in an attempt to save himself. There was no way he was planning on going anywhere with Ian, if he could help it.

He was still a few feet away from the door, when he felt a piercing pain on the side of his head and he fell to the ground unconscious.

Hours later, Riley awoke, stiff and uncomfortable. He was lying on an old, grey couch that looked like it had seen better days. He stood up, and looked around, one hand on the back of his head where he had been hit earlier.

"Where...am I?" He mused, as he stood up.

A few minutes later, the door opened, and Ian Howe walked in.

"Sit down," Ian told him, motioning toward the couch. "We need to talk."

Riley sat down, and waited to find out what Ian wanted to talk about. Ian grabbed a chair, and sat down across from Riley.

"I thought you were supposed to be in jail," Riley told him, looking up questioningly.

"Yes, well. I had a friend of mine help me with that little problem." Ian smirked.

"So... What am I doing here. And where's Ben and Abigail? Are they ok? I'm thirsty, could you get me a glass of water? Why did you kidnap me" Riley started to ask a few more questions to his kidnapper, but he stopped when he saw the gun that Ian pulled out of his pocket and aim at Riley.

"Do you ever shut up?" Ian yelled at him, annoyed.

Riley shook his head. "Not really."

Ian rolled his eyes, and mumbled a few choice words under his breath.

"You are going to hack into the Bank of America for me, and take 80 million and put it into an unmarked swiss bank account"

Ian told him, still pointing the gun at him.

Riley frowned. " Is that even possible? Why would I want to, if you keep threatening to kill me all the time? That is so illegal!"

"So is stealing the Declaration of Independance. And, Oh! Kidnapping the president!"

"I didn't kidnap anyone, Ben did. And it was because of the treasure, Ian. Not just for greed."

" Riley, if you don't do this for me, you will never see Ben or Abigail again. Now, are we understanding each other?"

" Fine. If this is what I have to do to keep them alive, then fine. But you'd better get me my laptop. I have some research to do." Riley told Ian, glaring at him as fiercely as he could.


	3. Chapter 3

Ian left Riley sitting on the couch, and returned nearly an hour later carrying Riley's precious laptop under his arm.

Riley took it excitedly(as it was his most treasured possesion, apart from his old, scuffed high tops), and proceeded to start up his computer.

He felt incredibly weird doing this hacking job for Ian, especially since Ian's clear disdain for a certain techie was imprinted all over the kidnapper's face. Riley wished he could talk to Ben, and ask him for advice. Ben always seemed to have all the answers, especially in times of crisis like being kidnapped and hacking bank accounts under duress.

Riley suddenly jerked out of his thoughts, and looked up at Ian, who was staring at him.

"What's up," He asked Ian, puzzled.

"Don't you think you should be hacking that bank now, instead of staring off into space?" Ian reminded him, before sitting down beside Riley and looking at the blank computer screen.

"I work much better when people aren't staring over my shoulder, you know." Riley told him after a few minutes, and Ian's eyes hadn't strayed from the laptop where Riley was working.

"Oh, I don't doubt that, Poole. But I refuse to let you use this laptop unsupervised. There is no telling what sort of things you will do if left alone for one minute. And I am not going to take the risk."

"So," Riley broke the uncomfortable silence. "Where are Ben and Abigail being kept?" Ian ignored the question, and looked pointedly at the laptop in an effort to keep Riley on task.

"This is sure a hard job. You might have to put up with me for a while, this hacking job might take up to a week for an expert hacker, Ian." Riley told him, as he paused to download a few programs.

"Well, you better hurry up. I'm only giving you two days. Here's a great idea! How about you stop chattering and asking stupid questions, and maybe you'll be to do your work faster." Ian retorted, pulling out his gun, and angrily waved it at Riley.

After working as stupid-questionless as he could for five solid hours, Riley wascompletely finished hacking into the bank site, after bypassing security systems left, right, and centre. He stole the money from a few huge corporations that housed their money in the bank of America, before placing it in the unmarked swiss bank account that Ian held.

Both Riley and Ian had not slept for about two days, and Riley hadn't eaten since lunch of the day that he'd been kidnapped.

"Please, can't you get me anything to eat?" Riley asked Ian, as he shut down his computer and curled up on the couch, eyelids drooping.

When Ian left the house to go get some food, Riley was fast asleep on the couch, feet hanging off the cushion. It took ten minutes to return to the house, with a full bag of cheeseburgers, fries and two large vanilla milkshakes.

Riley was just waking up, when Ian walked in with the food. He devoured his share hungrily, as he sat cross-legged on the floor. As soon as Riley was finished his meal, Ian stood up, and picked up Riley's laptop.

"Let's go. We're going to pick up Ben and Abigail, then you three can go home. Thank you for making me rich." Ian told Riley,

taking out his carkeys, and going into his car that was parked outside.

Riley got shotgun, and leaned against the window looking outside as Ian drove the car through they city. Ian pulled the car up to a brick apartment building and got out.

"Stay here and don't leave the car if you want Ben to still be alive." Ian warned Riley, who had no intention of leaving, because he was still incredibly drowsy.

It had been a few minutes that Ian had been in the building, when suddenly the door slammed open, and Ian ran out, a look of pure hatred etched on his face. He opened the driver's door, jumped in and started the car. As they sped away from the scene, being pursued by two black SUVS, Ian turned to Riley and started to yell at him.

"What have you done? You little maggot! What have you done?"


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Riley fans don't be angry that Riley gets hurt in this chapter. He'll make it. He's my favourite character.

I wouldn't dare kill him off.

As Ian drove through the city, hurdling through alleys and speeding down streets, Riley stayed silent and made no sarcastic comments or any noise whatsoever. Finally, Ian drove into an underground parking lot underneath a mall.

As soon as the engine was killed, Ian turned on Riley and grabbed his shirtfront, pulling him forwards.

"You. Are. Dead. Meat." He muttered, as he stared down the younger man. " I was going to let you go, and bring you three back to your precious little homes, and you'd have never heard from me again. How dare you trick me!" Ian yelled, getting louder with each sentance. Riley stayed still, staring at Ian's twisted face with a morbid fascination.

"Wh- what happened, Ian?" Riley finally asked, when Ian seemed to be out of words."What happened in there?"

"I went into the building to get your friends and take them to the car, but when I opened the door there was nobody in the room at all. Suddenly, a man jumped out and told me to freeze, because he was the FBI." Ian recounted, shaking with anger, as he looked off into space.

While Ian was talking, Riley's right hand felt beside him, until it touched the lock on the car door, and he started to lift it. As soon as Ian was finished talking, Riley grabbed the door handle, and with all his might,swung open the door, and jumped out. Riley ran as hard and fast as he could,trying to get outside where there were other people. He would be safer on a crowded city sidewalk, then in an underground cement deathtrap like this place. Ian was so surprised that he didn't react for a few seconds, before opening his door, and rushing out.

"Riley, you coward! Come back here! You called the FBI, and saved your friends but you can't even save yourself"

Ian screamed, running after him.

Ian reached Riley, and tackled him to the cement floor, knocking the wind of Riley.

"I was going to let you go free, Riley. But no more." Ian told Riley, trying to hold him down, as Riley squirmed underneath Ian's grasp.

"Just tell me one thing, how did you manage to alert the FBI, even underneath my supervision? I watched you like a hawk"

Ian yelled, as Riley tried to sit up, but was pushed back down.

"Not always. You left for ten minutes, Ian. When you thought I was sleeping." Riley spoke, slightly muffled as Ian kept pushing him back.

"I emailed Sadusky the FBI agent, and told him we three were being kidnapped. Obviously, he found Ben and saved him, before he could find me. I also emailed him the exact location of the money, and which accounts I skimmed off. It's hopeless, Ian. Just drop me off, and everything will be Ok."

"I will have to return to jail, I suppose." Ian laughed without feeling any emotion, except a raw desire to kill this little punk that dared to foil his plans.

Suddenly without warning, Ian raised his fist, and smashed it into Riley's skull. Riley lay unconscious on the ground, when Ian stood up, and picked up Riley, and slung him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

He opened the backseat of his car, and tossed him in, before getting into the driver's seat.

As he drove off, Ian opened his car window, and threw out Riley's laptop. It hit the cement, and bounced a few times before coming to a full stop.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: This chapter will be a bit different, because it will be a Ben chapter instead of a Riley chapter.

Also, new character(my creation) added to the mix. Hope you enjoy!

Matt pushed the thick, red hair out of his eyes, and pressed the button to call the elevator. He'd spent the last eight hours, selling cheap trinkets at the dollar store, and was ready to get into his car, and drive home. People poured out of the elevator, and he got on, being the sole passenger. Stepping off, he made his way over to his car. As he was about to get in, he saw something lying on the ground.

"A laptop?" He thought to himself. "Who would be foolish enough to leave a laptop here?"

Matt scooped it up, and opened it, seeing a name that someone scratched into it. It said Riley Poole, along with a phone number. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but Matt couldn't remember why. Maybe he knew the guy, or maybe he was famous.

He took out his cellphone, and phoned the number scratched into the laptop. A man's voice answered halfway through the second ring.

"Hello? Who is this?" It asked harshly.

"Hi, my name is Matt Bealieu. I found your laptop in the parking lot. You should take better care of your stuff."

"My...laptop? But, I don't own a laptop!"

"Uhh...Is this Riley Poole?"

"No. This is Ben Gates. What do you mean you have Riley's laptop? "

"Wait a sec. Ben Gates? The treasure guy?"

"Yes. I don't have all day, kid. Tell me where you found his laptop. Riley is my best friend. He was kidnapped a few days ago."

"Uh, in the parking lot underneath the Beechwood Mall. It was just lying there."

"Ok. I'll be over in a few minutes to take his laptop. Wait for me."

With a click, Ben hung up Riley's cellphone, and shoved it back into his pocket. With a quick explanation to Abigail,who was sitting on the couch in the mansion, Ben put on his jacket and left the house.

When Ben arrived at the parking lot, he noticed a young man in his teens leaning against an old beat-up car. He was wearing an oversized black hoody, and jean cutoffs.

As soon as he saw Ben, he walked over, and gave him the laptop.

"How will you find Riley? Who kidnapped him?" Matt asked Ben, a look of concern on his face.

"Ian Howe. He used to be my friend, but he got greedy, and ended up in jail. He kidnapped all three of us,because he wanted Riley to do some sort of hacking job for him. Riley emailed the FBI, who managed to find me and my girlfriend, but Ian still has Riley."

Ben explained this, as he took out Riley's cellphone and called Agent Sadusky from the FBI and explained about the laptop. Sadusky told Ben to stay where he was, and he would meet him in a few minutes.

When Sadusky showed up, he started a long conversation with Ben about Riley, and the kidnapping, and ways to find Ian before Riley got seriously hurt or killed.

As they were finishing up their conversation, Matt walked over and stood in front of Ben. "I want to join you, Ben Gates. I want to help you find Riley."

Ben seemed a little surprised, and turned to Sadusky who just shrugged his shoulders. "It's your call," the FBI agent told his friend.

"Alright, Matt. Follow behind in your car, and you can help find him."

Matt quickly walked over to his car, and followed behind Ben and the FBI agent. He didn't bother hiding his smile, as he thought about his future adventures as hero and treasure-hunter.


	6. Chapter 6

When Riley awoke, he was lying on a cement floor. His wrists were tightly tied, and his head hurt incredibly.

"Ian!" He yelled, pushing himself to a sitting position. "Untie me now!"

When Ian opened the door to the basement,and walked up to face Riley, he looked incredibly angry. Riley's head was throbbing from being knocked out earlier, and his chest felt bruised from being tackled at the carpark.

"Why would I untie you? So you could try and escape again? No way." Ian told him, taking the gun out of his jacket pocket.

Ian squatted down, until he was face-to-face with Riley.

"You ratted to the FBI, and tried to escape more then once. Why should I show you any mercy?"

"Uh...Because Ben will hunt you down and shoot you if anything happens to me. And because i'm just so cute and adorable."

"In your dreams." Ian retorted, pushing the gun into Riley's chest, making him wince a little. "Any last requests before you die?"

Riley looked up at Ian, and giggled. Ian stared at him. This was not the way Riley was supposed to be acting. Riley was supposed to be scared of Ian's fear tactics and death threats, and beg for his life, not giggle like a little kid. Maybe he'd hit him harder on the head then he'd thought...

"Ok, I have one request." Riley finally spoke, laughing.

"Umm...Ok. What is it?"

"Let me at least say goodbye to Ben and Abigail before you kill me."

"Out of the question. You'll tell him where you are."

Riley smirked up at his captor, before responding. "That doesn't make any sense! I don't know where I am at all. I'm in a basement. A cold basement."

"Ok, point taken. You have five minutes. Then you die." Ian quickly untied the rope around Riley's wrists. He gave his cellphone to Riley and sat back a few feet.?

Ben picked up the phone on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ben. It's Riley."

"Riley? Oh my God! Are you ok?"

"My head hurts. I'm cold. I'm still kidnapped. Ian gave me five minutes to say my goodbyes, then he shoots me."

"Shoots you!"

"Yeah. Because I emailed Agent Sadusky."

"Is Ian there?"

"Yeah, he's sitting a few feet from me, actually."

"Ok, we have your laptop. A kid at the mall found it in the parking lot, and called your cell to return it to you. Do you still have Ian's cellphone being tracked on your laptop?"

"Uh, yeah. Do you know where to find it?"

"Uh, there's a folder named Tracking. Is that the right program?"

"Yeah. It's it."

"Riley, I need your password for the laptop."

"Oh, yeah. Roswell, like the town."

"Got it. Ok, I opened the program." Ben quickly found a list of people Riley had tracked before, by using their cellphones.

On the bottom of the list was Ian Howe, from when he was using a GPS on Ian's phone during the first treasure hunting.

"Ok, program is up, and we are ready to find you."

"Ok, bye Ben. Say hey to Abigail for me, will you? See you later if I don't get murdered." Riley hung up the phone, and held it out to Ian with a smile. Ian gave him a really weird look, and took the phone from him.

"Ok, Riley. It's time you died now." Ian told him, pointing the gun yet again at Riley.

Riley closed his eyes, and leaned against the wall behind him. Man, was he ever tired.

Ian smiled, and pulled the trigger.


	7. Chapter 7

Riley opened his eyes in surprise as he stared down at the bullet wound in his arm. He quickly looked up at Ian.

"You shot me!" He exclaimed, wincing in pain.

Ian stared at him, puzzled. "I told you I would shoot you, didn't I?"

Riley nodded. " Yeah, but I didn't know you were serious. I thought it was just a trick to see if I would get scared."

Ian put the gun back in his pocket. "Well, that explains why you wouldn't stop laughing." He commented, as he made his way up the stairs.

"Ian!" Riley yelled loudly. Ian turned back to Riley.

"Could you please untie me? It hurts!" Riley told him, pained. Ian shook his head as he continued his way out the door.

"You can't leave me here, Ian. You can't shoot me and then leave me here! I'll die of concussion, and cold and blood loss!

Please Ian, don't be so mean all the time. Oh God, why did you have to shoot me? You know how much I hate guns. Oh my God, i'm gonna die and it's all your fault."

"Technically, I can do whatever I want." Ian answered him, closing the basement door, and locking it.

"I hate that guy," Riley muttered, as he started to panic. He tried to stop the blood, as he yelled for Ian to come back, but to no avail. After a few minutes his shirt was soaked in blood, and he was starting to feel physically sick, partially from actually being hurt, and partially from the sight of his own blood. He fainted a few minutes later.

Matt was tapping on Riley's laptop in the back of Sadusky's car, trying as hard as he could, to pinpoint exactly where Ian was. Ben was watching the screen earnestly, when suddenly the program started to show a tiny red light that showed Ian's name beside it. It was at a building on the edge of the city.

"I got it!" Matt yelled, turning triumphantly to Ben, before quickly giving the location to Sadusky. They were still about ten minutes away, so they quickly started to speed to get there as fast as they could.

When they got to the neighbourhood, Sadusky pulled over on the side of the road, and turned to Ben.

"Ok, what's the plan?" Matt asked both of them.

Ben turned to Sadusky. " We have to go in without the FBI. It's the only way Ian will talk to us"

"Are you serious?" Sadusky asked him, turning in his seat.

Ben nodded, before trying to explain himself. "I think it would be safer if just you and I talked to Ian. He would probably be more willing to give us Riley, then if the whole FBI showed up at his doorstep."

Sadusky shook his head slightly. "We're talking Ian Howe here. I'm still not convinced it is a good idea."

Ben gave him his best pleading look. "Ian probably already killed Riley by now. Couldn't we just try my idea and if it doesn't work we could call the FBI?"

"Fine. But how will we convince Ian to let us just take Riley? It's his only bargaining chip."

"I'm working on it."

Matt spoke up from the backseat. "OK, guys. Who is Ian Howe anyway? Is he like the mafia or something?"

Ben laughed. "Or something."

Sadusky and Ben got out of the car, and stood on the sidewalk. They were about to go into the building, when Matt got out of the car. "Let me come too," He told Ben.

Ben shook his head. "No way. It's too dangerous. You might get shot."

Matt turned to Sadusky, but Sadusky shook his head as well. "Kid, as an FBI agent, I am ordering you to stay in the car until we are done."

Matt opened the car door and got in. His hand automatically went to the radio dial to find some good music. If he wasn't allowed to help, then at least he could listen to a few good tunes while he waited.

Ben and Sadusky to the building, and Ben opened the door. "Ian?" Ben called out. "Ian! We need to talk! It's Ben! Sadusky and me are here to get Riley."

The house was completely silent. They started walking through the house, trying to find Ian, but the place appeared to be empty. Suddenly, there was a crash behind Ben, and he whirled around. Sadusky had been knocked out by Ian, and was lying on the ground unconscious.

"Ian! Where is Riley?" Ben asked him, staring him down.

Ian smiled at Ben. "I shot him. He should be dead by now. Unless you get me the eighty million that Riley failed to get me, you will never see your friend again."

"I can't hack." Ben told him.

"So find another way. Rob a bank." Ian told him, smirking.

"Riley! RILEY WHERE ARE YOU? RI-" Ben started to yell at the top of his lungs, hoping Riley would be close enough to answer.

When Ian pulled out a gun, and aimed it at Ben's head, Ben stopped abruptly.


	8. Chapter 8

Matt was sitting in the car for about ten minutes before deciding to go into the building and help Ben and Sadusky. Even though he knew he could be in trouble by Sadusky who had ordered him to the car, he got out of the car, and started to jog up the sidewalk towards the front door.

His attention was diverted however, when he saw the tiny basement window at street-level. Matt knelt down, and peered in.

It appeared to be empty, so he quickly opened it, and crawled in, jumping the last few feet to the floor. His plan was to perform a sort of sneak attack against this Ian Howe guy, by going through the basement instead of the front door as Ben and Sadusky had done.

As he was about go up the basement stairs, he thought he saw movement in the corner.

"Who's there?" Matt whispered, hoping fervently that it wasn't a rat.

There was silence for a moment. "Ben?" a voice called out.

Matt walked over to the corner, and realized it was a person. More specifically, a guy about his own age. The guy was lying on the floor, a few large bruises on his head, covered in blood.

Matt knelt down, and took a closer look at the guy. He seemed to be barely conscious.

"Are you Riley Poole?" Matt asked him, and the guy opened his eyes.

"Where's Ben? Who are you?" The guy answered, sitting up.

"Are you Riley?" Matt pressed the question, determined to get an answer.

"umm. Yeah. Who are you?"

"My name is Matt Bealieu. I'm the guy that found your laptop. Ummm... Are you ok?"

"I got shot." Riley told him, looking down at his arm.

Matt took in both the wound and the fact that his wrists were tied together, and quickly got out his swiss army knife.

"Where's Ben?"

"Talking to Ian. Him and Sadusky, this FBI dude." Matt told him, as he started to cut through the rope on Riley's wrists.

"What!" Riley spoke, looking horrified.

"What?"

"What did you say?"

"Umm, Ben and the FBI guy are talking to Ian upstairs. Why?"

"Ian has a gun. He might shoot Ben."

Matt finally managed to cut through the rope, and he quickly ripped it off, and sat crosslegged across from Riley.

"We have to stop it, Matt."

"How will we do that? We don't have a gun. How big is this Ian guy? Maybe we could tackle him!"

Riley snorted. "Big. Plus I wouldn't be able to tackle anyone for a while."

"Ben could."

"Ben could, but Ian has a gun."

"What do you want to do, then?"

"You crawled in through the window, right?"

Matt nodded.

"Ok. We'll crawl out the window, and go for the police."

Matt helped Riley stand up, and walk over to the window. He quickly gave Riley a boost, until Riley climbed out. Matt backed up, and took a running leap to the window. The window was too high for him to reach on his own.

"Riley! Go get the police, i'll stay here." Matt told him. Riley nodded briefly, before hurrying as fast as he could to get help.


	9. Chapter 9

It felt as if Riley had been walking for hours on end, even though it was probably in reality only about 6 blocks.

The neighbourhood seemed to be filled with derelict buildings and cracked sidewalks that constantly threatened to trip him up. Not a working payphone, or a police car in sight.

Finally he sat down to take a quick rest, because his arm was killing him. He had only just closed his eyes, and leaned against the banister of the building's steps, when someone nudged him.

Riley opened his eyes, and saw a homeless man frowning at him.

"You're sitting in my seat," The man told him crossly, before crossing his arms.

"Find a new seat," The homeless man told him, as Riley slowly pulled himself back up, clutching the bannister tightly.

The homeless man quickly sat down where Riley had been.

"Excuse me," Riley told him."Do you have a cellphone I could borrow? It's kind of an emergency."

The man didn't even open up his eyes. "I don't have a cellphone, now get lost, kid. I need my beauty sleep."

Riley sighed, and cradling his arm, started his trek down the street for the second time.

Matt was pacing back and forth in the basement, trying to come up with a plan to get upstairs, but there was nothing to break down the door. Suddenly, he remembered he still had his pocket knife.

He quickly took it out of his pocket, and went to the basement door, working on jimmying open the lock.

A minute later, the lock clicked open, and Matt quietly eased the door open, and walked into the house.

The first thing that he saw, was Sadusky. He was still lying unconscious on the floor. Matt checked his pulse, and knew that Sadusky was still alive.

He took the gun from Sadusky's holster, and stuck it in his hoody's pouch, before continuing on his way to find Ben and Ian.


	10. Chapter 10

Matt crept along the hallway, towards the dining room. He could hear two voices, one of which he recognized as Ben Gates' voice. The other, a deep northern accent, he presumed must be Ian Howe's.

He paused a foot away from the doorway, and listened to their conversation for a moment.

"Ian, this is ridiculous. The FBI know all about the money you tried to get Riley to steal for you. You knocked out Sadusky, kidnapped three people, do you really think you are going to get away with this?"

"I'm not going back to jail,"

"Yeah,you are."

"Ben, shut up and quit stalling. I need that money so I can get out of this country and disappear."

"Ian. I'm working on it, but as we both know, I am not a hacker. Getting me to do this instead of Riley is stupid."

"I'm not letting that nerd near a computer again. If you fail, I will personally see to it that he dies in front of you. Now hurry up."

Matt stepped forward, intending on peeking through the doorway. The floor squeaked under his sneakers, and he froze, holding his breath.

The voices stopped, and Matt heard a gun cocking.

He jumped at the sudden sound of a gunshot from the next room. He gave a small shout, before quickly clasping his hands over his mouth, trying to stifle any noise. There was a large hole in the wall a few inches away from Matt.

After about thirty seconds, Matt stepped through the doorway.

"Don't Shoot!" He called out, putting his hands in the air.

Ian was standing in the centre of the room, gun trained on Matt.

Ian's eyes flicked from the unknown teenager in front of him, to Ben, who was sitting in front of the laptop.

"Who are you?" He asked, slightly confused.

"I'm Matt Bealieu. I found Riley's laptop in a carpark. Can I put my hands down? You're not going to shoot at me again, are you?"

Ian told Matt to sit down across from Ben at the table, but kept his gun out.

"Hey Ben," Matt whispered, as he took his seat.

"You were ordered to stay in the car,"

"Yeah, well. I wanted to help."

"Thanks. Big help." Ben told the teen, a bit sarcastically.


	11. Chapter 11

Riley was feeling exhausted, and slightly dizzy as he continued to walk down the sidewalk. He spotted a group of teenagers ahead of him.

"Excuse me," He raised his voice to be heard over their conversation. They stopped talking and turned towards him. Riley was clutching his bloodied arm, the side of his hoody was spattered with blood.

"Do you have a cellphone? Please, it's an emergency!"

"What happened to you, man?" One of the teens asked him, reaching for his cellphone. A few of the kids backed up, watching Riley. He was receiving the full attention of the group, they were gaping at him.

"I got shot."

The sleeve of his hoody was stained dark with the blood from his wound, it had slowly started dripping down the side of his clothing as he continued to press his injured arm against his body.

"You ok?" someone asked him, as he started to waver a little on his feet. Small black dots were beginning to form in front of Riley's vision, and the teen's voices were starting to sound like they were getting farther away.

One of the teens stepped forward to lead Riley to the curb so he could sit down. Riley stumbled, and pitched forward into the teen's arms. Riley was quickly lowered to the ground, where he lay unconscious.

When the ambulance arrived, Riley was put on a stretcher and driven to the nearest hospital. The nurse rifled through Riley's wallet, searching for an ID card, and found a handwritten note alongside his ID and debit card. It read,

"In case of Emergency call: Ben Gates and Abigail Chase." It included a phone number. The nurse picked up the phone, and dialed the number. A woman answered on the second ring.

"Hello, this is nurse Williams, I'm calling from Providence Hospital. I'm looking for Ben Gates or Abigail Chase."

"Yes, this is Abigail," the woman answered, sounding worried. "What is this about?"

"Ma'am, we have a Mr. Riley Poole here, it says in his wallet you're his emergency contact. Are you family?"

"Wait - Did you just say you have Riley Poole at the hospital? OH MY GOD. What happened? He was kidnapped. Where did you find him?"

"Are you family?"

"He doesn't have any family. Ben and I are the closest thing he has. Is he okay?" Abigail asked, cradling the phone into her shoulder as she put on her shoes.

"We are prepping him for surgery right now, he has been shot in the arm. He's lost alot of blood."

"Let me talk to him," Abigail told the nurse, as she reached for her jacket.

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Mr. Poole is unconscious. We only knew to call you because we found your number in his wallet."

Abigail thanked the nurse, and hung up. She drove straight to the hospital, praying desperately that her friend would be okay.


	12. Chapter 12

Matt sat back in his chair, watching Ian stalk from one end of the room to the other. Ian was impatiently waiting for Ben to finish working on the computer, so he could leave town.

"Are you nearly finished?" Ian snarled at his two captives. Ben shook his head silently, continuing to type. Ian rolled his eyes.

"How much longer?" He asked. Ben stopped typing and looked up.

"I don't know. I'm going as fast as I can."

Ben was by no means computer illiterate, but these types of jobs were much better suited for someone with a higher skill level. Someone like his best friend, Riley. He was doing his best to finish hacking the money, full aware of the gun that Ian still had trained on him and Matt. Not only were their lives in danger, but the lives of Sadusky and Riley were also on the line.

"Hey, Matt," Ben whispered to the teenager, barely looking up from the computer screen. "How are your computer skills? Are you able to help me out on this?"

Matt shook his head, apologetically. "Sorry. I only use mine for email and facebook," He admitted, disappointed that he wasn't able to help out more.

Ben leaned back in his chair, and rubbed his left temple with his fingertips.

"I'm getting a massive headache," Ben groaned. He used his other hand to push the laptop across the table towards the teen.

Matt took one look at the computer screen and realized how screwed they were. He had absolutely no idea what to do. There were a whole bunch of screens open - mostly bank websites and a few hacking forums. It appeared that Ben hadn't had much luck either.

Matt opened a word document, and started to type. He cut and pasted all the relevant posts from the hacking forums. In between the various posts, he typed up a message for Ben.

Ben - I stole Sadusky's gun. We should try and escape.

Matt pushed the laptop back towards Ben, and kicked him under the table to get his attention. Ben opened his eyes, and frowned at Matt. He saw the opened word document, recognizing the posts he'd been reading earlier. They hadn't helped in wiring money for Ian, so Ben was a bit confused as to what Matt was so interested in. He spotted the message a minute later.

Ben looked over at Matt, eyeing his jean shorts and hoody up and down, before settling on the slight bulge in the kid's hoody pouch. Ben quickly deleted Matt's message, and typed out a response.

I need you to get Riley out of here. I'll hold off Ian, until you guys are both outside. Then i'll use Sadusky's radio to call the FBI.

When the computer was passed back to Matt, he quickly read the message before erasing it. He was about to reply to let Ben know that Riley was, in fact, already safe and should. Ben coughed loudly, and Matt looked up to see that Ian had stopped pacing the room and was standing a few feet from Ben.

"How much longer?" Ian asked, stepping forward. Ian lowered the gun to his side, as he reached out to turn the laptop towards him. As soon as Ben saw Ian lower his gun, he impulsively turned towards his captor, and landed a hard blow to the man's stomach. Matt jumped to his feet, when he saw Ian double over. He pulled the gun out, and aimed it at Ian.


End file.
